Documenting one man's planning for, travel to and experience at the 2012 Tour de France, with some extra fluff thrown in for good measure...

Saturday, July 7, 2012

All good things must come to an end...

Well, Fabian Cancellara's time in yellow came to an end today. I was hopeful of a miracle but that last climb was just too much for the big man. It was a great week for Spartacus in yellow, and you could tell that he loved it. Obviously, I don't know him personally but he seems like a truly nice guy and well deserving of the maillot jaune.

There's a chance that Cancellara could be back in yellow on Monday. Clearly Wiggens and Evans are the cream this year, but I'm not sure that either BMC or Team Sky want to defend the yellow jersey for the next two weeks. Since Bradley knows he can get it back from Cancellara at any time in the mountains, and because he is most likely riding the time trial last, he might just make sure he stays on level terms with or slightly better than Cadel and the other GC contenders and not go out to ride his absolute best TT. If this is the case and Spartacus can turn in the type of TT he is known for, he could be back in the yellow jersey.

So far, it's been an intriguing Tour, and today separated the GC contenders from the GC wannabes. I was sincerely hoping that Frank Schleck, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden were going to be in the top echelon, but perhaps this just isn't going to be their year. Of course there's much more Tour left, so we'll just have to see...